Search Results
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Portland’s Fourplex Legalization Would Reduce Displacement Almost Everywhere
In Portland and Cascadia’s other growing cities, housing displacement and exclusion seem automatic. They happen without government action. They are the status quo. Even if Oregon were to pass a dramatically tighter version of the rent stabilization bill it’s now considering, that alone wouldn’t do a thing for tenants who want to move, which of course just about every tenant does at some point. And that’s where allowing more homes...Read more » -
Washington State to Consider Groundbreaking Suite of Housing Affordability Bills
Across Cascadia, high rents and home prices are leaving people behind. Local governments struggle to meet this massive challenge of politics and funding. In response, this year Washington state legislators are stepping up with a remarkably comprehensive suite of housing bills. Tackling a housing affordability crisis calls for three main fixes: more homes; more funding for affordable homes; and more tenant protections. Impressively, Washington lawmakers have proposed bills that do...Read more » -
Re-legalizing Fourplexes Is the Unfinished Business of Tom McCall
In the month since news broke that Oregon’s legislature will consider a bill to strike down 60-year-old bans on “middle housing,” some battle lines have emerged. The Oregonian‘s editorial board is for it; the Bend Bulletin‘s is against. Habitat for Humanity of Oregon is excited; the Oregon Republican Party’s Twitter account is dubious. But another group of people has been enthusiastically discussing the proposal, House Bill 2001, which would re-legalize...Read more » -
Par Pacific Buys Tacoma Refinery, Aims to up Oil Shipping on Salish Sea
If any doubt remained that Tacoma is ground zero for the Northwest’s fight over dirty energy, the recent purchase of a refinery on the city’s industrial port lays any question to rest. US Oil began operating the refinery on Tacoma’s industrial port in the 1950s, but on November 28, 2018, its owners sold the facility to a company called Par Pacific Holdings for $340 million. The Houston-based company has made clear its...Read more » -
Why You’re Still Not Bringing a Reusable Mug for Your Daily Coffee
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2016 but we’ve added this update about startup company Vessel, which is piloting a mug share program in Boulder, Colorado. Five coffee shops across the city have already signed up to participate. Participation is free for customers—they simply pick up their caffeine fix in a stainless steel, reusable mug at their participating café of choice and return it within five days to...Read more » -
19 Questions That 2019 Will Answer about Cascadian Housing Reform
Predictions are for suckers. Here at Sightline, we prefer pointed questions. As our little housing policy team waited this week for our calendars to flip, I cornered each of my colleagues and we cooked up a list of 19 intriguing questions about housing whose answers will be revealed over the course of the next year. Price trends Will median home prices in Cascadia’s big urban hubs keep slipping as their...Read more » -
2018 in Review: How Soon for Electric Robo-Taxis?
Earlier this month, Google subsidiary Waymo announced the launch of a commercial robo-taxi service in Chandler, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, after nearly two years of testing there. Yet just a few weeks earlier, automation expert Mary Cummings, the director of the Humans and Autonomy Laboratory at Duke University, said she doesn’t expect widespread use of robo-taxis in the next 20 years. So which is it? Will the robots show...Read more » -
The Books We Love Best in 2018
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Minneapolis Takes Big Step toward Legalizing Triplexes on All Single-Family Lots
As Cascadia’s three biggest cities—Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, BC—each grind toward re-legalizing modest multifamily homes across their vast swaths of land reserved for detached houses, a major city outside the region just took a big first step toward that same end: Minneapolis. Last week, Minneapolis approved a new plan that formally sets it on course to permitting triplexes throughout the half of the city currently restricted by zoning laws to...Read more » -
Trudeau Shied Away from Democracy Reform. British Columbia Could Step Forward.
In the fall of 2015, when Canadians were weighing whether to choose Justin Trudeau to be their next prime minister, “sunny ways” were not all the handsome young candidate promised to deliver. One of the most prominent parts of Trudeau’s platform was a commitment to change the way Canada votes. He said he wanted to make elections fairer. In fact, he said it over and over and over—more than 1,500...Read more »